Text: John 20:19-31 (Easter 2; Year C)

The great Easter greeting has been ringing out since last Sunday in congregations throughout the world. The words ‘He is risen’ are being responded to with the words, ‘He is risen indeed.’ It’s a wonderful way for us Christians to greet each other when the joy and excitement of the resurrection of our Lord has been consuming our thoughts and praises over these last days. But how long did this victorious greeting last for you over the past week?

If your experience is anything like the bulk of people, this was not the greeting you heard as you returned to normal routines on Tuesday morning. Instead of greeting colleagues and friends with the proclamation that ‘He is risen!’, you were probably greeted with that great Aussie post-Easter question – “What did you get up to over the weekend?”

So how long did the Easter proclamation last for you? Has it sustained you throughout this last week? Or did it kind of fizzle out when you realised that everyone else seemed to kick up their heels last weekend, while your weekend was consumed with worship and thoughts of our Lord’s Passion and resurrection? When they asked you “What did you get up to over the weekend?” were you able to joyfully share with them your celebration of Jesus’ victory over sin and death? Or did you find yourself responding with the words, “Nothing much”, all the while feeling a bit ripped off because they seemed to pack so much into their weekend compared to what you did?

It doesn’t take much for the Easter ‘high’ to be tainted by the concerns and preoccupations of our everyday lives. The joy with which we exchange the Easter greeting can be quickly overrun by fears, anxieties, jealousies and even doubts that seem more powerful and pressing than Jesus’ resurrection and victory over death. After all, the world in which we live scoffs at the resurrection. It has us question our choice to worship rather than holiday and party. And it puts down our belief in something that is seemingly unprovable. If we try to greet the unbelieving world with the Easter greeting “He is risen!” We’re likely to get the response, “Yeah right! Tell us another one.”

It’s not really that much different from the way Thomas responded to the disciples’ proclamation that they had seen the risen Lord Jesus. “He is risen!” they declared, “We have seen the Lord!” To which Thomas also responded, “Yeah right! Unless I see and touch him I won’t believe.”

Now at times we’ve been quick to point the finger at Thomas as the greatest example of scepticism and doubt. So much so that the phrase “Doubting Thomas” has become synonymous with those who are cynical and sceptical. But the fact is the other ten disciples are in a very similar boat to Thomas. Before Jesus appears to them, they were huddled in the room together, fearful and cowering. Despite the fact that at the very least Mary had told them of the resurrection, the ten were not full of joy, and were not living in the midst of the Easter ‘high’. They too were preoccupied with doubts and fears.

The resurrection of Jesus meant that they were right to have followed Him. It meant that He really was the Son of God and all the promises He had made would come to fruition. They should’ve been excited and feeling thoroughly reassured. But already on that first Easter evening the ten were finding it hard to live out the reality of the resurrection. Like Thomas, they had doubts about the whole deal and were consumed with the immediate threat to their physical well-being.

So did the Easter proclamation that Christ is risen carry you through the whole week? Or did you struggle, along with the disciples, to stay excited about Jesus’ resurrection after last Sunday night?

It’s not easy to stay confident and excited about the resurrection. And its certainly not easy to remember its significance when we’re facing everyday hassles in life. After all, Jesus’ resurrection can seem a long way from juggling our finances, or dealing with work hassles or study deadlines or family issues or health concerns. These seemingly pressing matters can very easily consume our focus and devastate our Easter joy. And so instead of being buoyed up by the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead and overcome sin and death and the devil for you, Easter can become little more than an abstract celebration, unrelated to your everyday existence. You may not doubt that Jesus was raised from the dead. But perhaps you’ve started doubting that his resurrection means anything in your life right now. And sometimes that can be the most devastating doubt of faith you can face.

You see it’s a doubt that’s happily reinforced by unbelieving friends and family who look at your life and can’t see any physical evidence that Jesus’ resurrection has made a scrap of difference to what you face. They figure that if the Christian faith is worth all its bother, then it must produce tangible results. To put it crassly, if they’re going to give up their Easter weekend, there better be some noticeable benefit right now. And when you’re tempted to judge the faith by these standards, it’s only a matter of time before Jesus’ resurrection becomes some sort of disconnected, insignificant idea, and all manner of doubts establish their foothold.

One of the fascinating things about our text is that Jesus didn’t come to the ten or to Thomas to reprimand them over their doubts. Surely He would have been justified in telling them off for their unbelief. After all He had told them that He must die and that on the third day He would be raised to life. And yet even after they’d been told of His resurrection they were still wallowing in their fears and doubts. But Jesus comes into the midst of them not to chastise, but to calm their fears and ease their doubts. He comes into the midst of them, bringing peace and comfort. You see the resurrected Jesus is present to offer the gifts His death has secured. And so He comes and proclaims to His disciples that they are now at peace with God. Despite the very real threat the Jews posed to them, Jesus’ resurrection brings with it the assurance that they are right with God, that their sins are forgiven and they have a heavenly inheritance awaiting them.

Does this make an immediate difference to their everyday existence? Well a week after Jesus first appeared to them, the disciples are still locked in a room, and presumably they’re still fearful. So on the surface it doesn’t appear all that much has changed. But the fact is they have been set right with God and they know that well enough that they’ve been telling Thomas about their experience with the risen Lord Jesus. The word that St John uses makes it clear that they didn’t just tell Thomas once, but they’ve been telling him about Jesus’ resurrection all week!

To be sure it took time for the disciples to fully appreciate the resurrection. But when they did, they just couldn’t keep quiet about it because of what the resurrection offered. They knew that this peace that the resurrected Christ brings with Him was too great a gift to keep hidden. And so like Thomas their doubts were swept away by the gracious presence of Jesus and they began to proclaim the peace which God offers each of us through His death and resurrection. For these disciples faith in the resurrected Jesus would ultimately bring a load of hardship and suffering. And yet they couldn’t walk away from this faith in favour of a cushy weekend because they knew the blessings it offered. They knew of the true peace that comes when sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to our Heavenly Father. And thanks to their faithful, inspired witness, we too know of this peace.

Just as the resurrected Jesus came to the ten disciples and then to Thomas, He still comes to you and me, and to all the other heart headed, hard hearted sceptics that gather in the midst of His Word. And He speaks the same word of peace to us that He spoke to the disciples on those first two Easter Sundays. Peace be with you, He says. And as Jesus speak, so it is done. Peace is established between us doubtful sinners, and our gracious Father. His peace brings forgiveness and life where there was only doubt, opposition and death.

Don’t get sucked into the kind of thinking that has you doubting that Jesus’ resurrection is for you and is significant in your life right now. Regardless of your life’s circumstances, this peace that He brings is yours. It’s not a peace that necessarily makes all the pain and hurt and suffering and hardship disappear in this life. But that doesn’t make it any less real. It’s a peace that exists between you and the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, and it’s a peace that assures you of an eternal life in His glorious presence.

The resurrected Jesus brings this peace to you every time you gather here in worship. As the Pastor forgives your sins on behalf of Christ, peace with God is yours. When your sinful self was drowned in the waters of baptism, peace with God is yours. And as you feast on the body and blood of the resurrected Christ, peace with God is yours. This is not some abstract, insignificant idea. This is reality. This is how it is between you and God thanks to presence of our resurrected Lord Jesus. He brings His gift of peace to ease our doubts, soothe our troubled conscience and set us right with our Heavenly Father.

Don’t let the scepticism of a doubting world overtake the joy of our Easter greeting and proclamation. He is risen! He is risen indeed! And because of His resurrection you can be sure of God’s love and mercy and forgiveness as you are set at peace and put right with Him. That’s the benefit we received last week as we used the long weekend to celebrate the gracious actions of an incredible God. And that’s the benefit that is ours again today, sustaining us for all we face in this life, and equipping us with a joyful hope for what awaits us in the life to come.